The new Walloon Animal Welfare Code was approved by the Walloon Government this week. Clear objectives: strengthening animal protection and putting an end to situations of impunity.
The Walloon Minister-President responsible for Animal Welfare, Adrien Dolimont, has put forward a comprehensive reform to provide concrete responses to sometimes critical situations.
To close loopholes and ensure the Code is genuinely enforced, the enforcement system is being strengthened. The aim is to make sanctions genuinely deterrent and to tackle impunity more effectively, particularly in cases of repeat offences. Keeping an animal despite a suspension or withdrawal of the trust certificate will now constitute an offence. The same applies to any activity carried out without the necessary authorisations or in breach of them.
Certain offences, due to their seriousness, will be reclassified, with sanctions of up to three years' imprisonment and a fine of one million euros.
Beyond sanctions, the reform also focuses on prevention and accountability for animal owners. The ownership permit, in its current form, has several shortcomings. It will therefore be replaced by a more preventive and modern trust certificate.
This will take into account all members of the household: it will therefore no longer be possible to keep an animal under the same roof as someone who has already been sanctioned. Decisions will be recorded in the central register, and animals kept during a suspension period will be seized without delay.
The reform also modernises several aspects of the Code, in particular:
- the requirement that breeding must aim to produce animals free from conditions that could harm their welfare;
- a clear distinction between breeders and sellers of dogs and cats;
- a ban on using an animal adopted from a shelter for breeding purposes;
- the regulation of animal cafés;
- the possible creation of shelters for exotic animals in distress;
- the creation of rehabilitation centres for animals from farms;
- a ban on selling animals at municipal markets;
- a ban on home slaughter of sheep, goats and pigs.